New Bicycle Parking Demo

Commuters at the Pavilion Park & Ride in Northwest Austin may notice something different in the bicycle parking area. It’s called a BikeLid and it’s a new, safe and eco-friendly way to park your bicylce.

The outer shell protects your bike from theft, vandalism and weather elements. The BikeLid is used in other major cities across the country, like Portland, Tampa and NYC.Capital Metro was lucky enough to get a free BikeLid with help from the City of Austin’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program. We are testing it out to see if bicycle commuters use it and like it. If we get enough positive feedback, we may decide to purchase some at various other transit facilities.

They run from $800-1000, which is why we would not replace all bicycle parking with BikeLids, if we decide to purchase some. Other cities have used the sides of the shell for advertising and that’s something we would definitely consider.

Another benefit to the BikeLid is that it’s made from industrial plastic waste materials and recycled steel and is 100% recyclable.

The BikeLid is extremely easy to use: just lift the shell, place your bike inside, close the shell and secure it with a U-lock. Check out KVUE’s story on the BikeLid to see how it works.

We see the BikeLid as another way to encourage cyclists to take transit. So if you’re a commuter at the Pavilion Park & Ride, give the BikeLid a try and let us know what you think.

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4 thoughts on “New Bicycle Parking Demo”

Yokota Fritz

More traditional rectangular bike lockers are better, IMO. We have some of these clamshells in the San Francisco Bay Area — they work but they detract from the streetscape considerably. With advertising they would be downright horrid.

I am glad that Capital Metro is interested in bike parking, and I hope that you add bike lockers to your rail stations, transit centers and park & rides. I am against using the bike shell; however, and would prefer using the traditional rectangular options. From other cities that I have lived in, the bike shells are not popular because they are inefficient (a regular bike locker can hold 2 bikes in the same space as the bike shell can hold 1 bike). Also, bike shells cannot be stacked on top of each other, whereas I have seen some cities use 2-level bike lockers when space was not available to spread them out over 1 layer.

Of course, ultimately the final decision should be to choose the lowest price bike storage option, as Capital Metro has a fixed budget, and should choose to get the most "bang for the buck".